Many portable electronic devices include a camera for taking photographs and/or videos. Such portable electronic devices include cellular phones, personal email devices, tablet computers, laptop computers, personal digital assistants, and digital cameras. Many such devices include a camera software application that functions to take panoramic photographs using the camera. But to use these applications typically the user must hold the device by hand, so taking seamless panoramic images is not as easy as preferred, particularly when it's desired for the user to be in the photograph. This is in part because a camera experiencing even a little motion takes lower-quality photographs than an immobile camera, so any deviations from the line of the panorama introduces distortions. For a panoramic photo, the software must stitch together multiple pictures, and having the individual photographs taken (1) immobile (except for panoramic rotation), (2) from the exact axial point (to avoid parallax errors when stitching the shots together), and (3) with the same horizontal and vertical orientation (i.e., with rotation in a single plane), are key to getting an optimal result. To ensure these three criteria are met, professional panoramic photographs are usually taken using a tripod and motorized bases. But for casual use, carrying around a tripod is not a practical solution.
Accordingly, it can be seen that there exists a need for improvements for portable electronic devices that make panoramic photographic or video images. It is to the provision of solutions meeting these and other needs that the present invention is primarily directed.